Hello everyone, just stopped in to see what is going on and saw your posts about loosing your buds on your CC.
If you want your buds to stay on your Christmas Cactus you should never move it after October. Many times moving it from one location to another during the time when it is getting ready to bud, shocks it to the point where all the buds will drop when they come out.

Also, you may want to go to Cubits.Org and check out my Cubits store. If you join my cubits you get a discount on all sales in the store.. http://cubits.org/JBsPlants/st... . If you have any questions, please contact me by TMail or CMail.

You may want to try Hirt also. That is where I got my yellow several years ago. Yellow are hard to find but they grow fast and bloom early.

JB: I had to google for Hirt's cause I'd never heard of them. Wow, look at all the colors ... and they have the yellow one!!

http://www.hirts.com/Christmas...

JB you have some neat looking xmas cacti for sale. Here are some pics of my long deceased yellow Thanksgiving cactus

I am glad you found Hirts. I have about four of their plants and they are doing well over the years.The plants are small but healthy and the prices are good considering. My Yellow Zigocactus was a Hirt plant and it took me several years before it was old enough to begin to take cuttings.

My first bloom

This is my old verson of Christmas Cheer. Really pendulent growing and only 1 bloom on the end segment. will usually bloom in batches till late Jan.took this pic yesterday 11/04/2013
cliff



this is a mixed basket, the red/orange is supposed to be Harmony and the Lav is Lavender Doll big bloom size on this 1

I buy lots of stuff from Hirt's on Amazon (get reward points from they're credit card plus LOTS of other perks). I was given a yellow Christmas cactus by "Docgipe" from "Dave's Garden" and now everyone in my family has gotten a piece of it. Right now I have one large plant and 4 other starter plants growing. It is a beautiful color!!

Love everyone's pics! Starting to see some buds down this way!

Tiffany,
Have you noticed that the dark flowering ones seem to have the dark red foliage from the summer sun. Mine did and the white flowering one had the dark green.
Stush

Stush, I'm curious too, no idea which plant is which at this point, with all of the repotting this spring, companionizing.

The sun shines on this pot all morning since spring. These 2 different plants definitely responded differently.

Yesterday I literally snatched that little TC I pictured Nov 7, 2013 2:41 PM CST out of the pot with my hand. COLD last night. Really irritated to have to move everybody inside before any flowers opened. Hope that doesn't mess up the buds. They can go back outside tomorrow for another week, then the temps get iffy again.

I guess I am lucky. I moved my TC into the house and didn't lose a single bud. In fact when the red started to bloom, you almost can't see the plant. We moved it around several places to show it off and didn't have any effect. But I am using my secret fertilizer on it.
Stush

So now I want to know… @Stush2019 How big of a secret is this fertilizer?

Oh TC! And CC! I love these so much. JB-- awesome Samba Brazil! That is high on my wants list for TC.

Mine are all in bud. I will take pics once they bloom.

Secrets, secrets. How much of a secret is it if I told anyone? Well it has to do with an old time plant growth hormone combined with a diet supplement. Found both on the shelves of Walgreens. For people but trying it out on my plants. I don't want to go into it till I can prove it is ok to use and no ill effects. Winter is the time of year of plant death due to root rot. Too cold, and too much water. So far I see great results. I will let all know as soon as spring arrives and the proof is evident.
Stush

Fair enough! Anxious to hear the results!

Ok, giving this a lot of thought. Just to share so others don't have a hard time this winter.
I have been told by some very big nursery growers that Alfalfa is a growth stimulant for plants. Claiming to get two years growth in one year. And given the fact that most of my loss is due to root rot or base rot, decided to give Potassium only to encourage root development. Both of these were purchased in local stores. K-Mart had the Alfalfa 1300 mg. herbal supplement, 300 tablets for about $8. Then Walgreens had the Potassium Gluconate 595 mg. dietary supplement, 300 tablets for about the same cost. So in a 1 liter bottle, 3 tablets of Alfalfa with 1 tablet of Potassium. Mix well, then the next day, added to water can with another 1 liter more water and watered plants as normal. So far so good. Seeing new growth and vigor. After a few watering then back to normal watering.
Now the cat is out of the bag. I have to tell my other friends about this.
Stush

Well that's interesting, you've got N-_-K, of N-P-K, from what I can tell. Alfalfa would be the N, potassium is obviously the K. The P is in tap water.
http://toxics.supportportal.co...
I think you may be onto something, though I have an amateur/hobby grasp of such things. I was inspired to investigate though, due to your experiment. It makes me wonder if ferts with even numbers could actually be too much P?

How did you choose the amounts? That's just how much 1 pill is?

When I simply pureé a banana & dilute into water for plants, they really dig it. That's a lot of K, and lowers the PH a bit. Some N would be a good idea.

Good to know, Stush! I have in the past given plants with chlorosis straight up iron tablets. BTW, I sent you an e-mail back a few days ago but wasn't sure if it made it

Stush: I have been lurking with interest and I must say you got my attention big time. I hope now that you left that cat out of the bag your experiment works and you will report to us how your plants are doing.

Christmas Cactus take such little care that I am able to keep a larger variety than I would be able to if they were gardenias, etc. I noticed you were speaking about gardenias earlier in this thread. I do not know anyone just now other than the larger nurseries that is growing them. I was propagating the Amee Gardenia for a few years but it was a constant struggle with mealy bug that I put them all outside and I still have one that has survived the winter being out of the greenhouse. It is growing and is almost 4 ft. tall now and happy being planted in the ground near the house, more or less protected. My greenhouse is inspected yearly and there may be no signs of any bugs or they will close me down and I can not ship plants until the next two months and a reinspection. That is why I stopped growing gardenias. But, if I lived in a warmer Zone I would have them all over the place outside. The are a wonderful plant and bloom all summer.

Here are a few of my Brazils aka Thanksgiving Cactus

S. Amazonas Brazil


S. Sao Paulo Brazil


S. Samba Brazil


This variety is my favorite. The colors are so beautiful. Happy Thanksgiving Cactus to all.